Kicking off the Season

I have made a decision.  I have a new disposition on the Holidays.  Some of you may not agree with me, but here is how I have decided to proceed with the Holiday season from here on out, indefinitely:

The "season" begins October 1st.  We will celebrate "fall" and begin doing festive things like decorating the house, baking, visiting pumpkin patches, making costumes for Halloween, etc.  Halloween will now be considered the kick-off for the Season.  Once Halloween is completed, it is Christmastime.  I know.  Don't judge yet.  Thanksgiving is one of my very favorite times of year, but I've always told myself I can't start enjoying Christmastime until Thanksgiving is over.  Not only does that make me appreciate Thanksgiving less, but it cuts my "Christmastime" way too short to enjoy. SO-- I will still have to work on Kreg regarding the decor in our home, but I plan on listening to Christmas music and Christmas shopping and Christmas book-reading beginning November 1st. Thanksgiving will be celebrated as a special part of Christmastime.  Because I think it fits in perfectly with the "theme" of the season and helps keep our focus in check.  Why should we be thankful for all we have one day, and the next day (black Friday!) rush out to fill ourselves and everyone we know with more, more, more??  I think it should carry out throughout the Season.  

Whew. Okay, now that I have that off my chest... here's how we've begun this year's Season so far:

The Pumpkin Patch:
Although VERY cold, and nearly out of pumpkins... we had a great time :) We went to the Colorado Pumpkin Patch, which included a petting zoo, hayrides, hay slides, hay mazes, hay pyramids, and gourd launching.  We had a great time together and the boys picked out their pumpkins.  I won't lie... it was a pretty expensive little outing and we may look at changing it up next year.  We'll see! 

Pumpkin Carving:

Costumes:

We had every intention of the boys going as Iron Man & Captain America to their Halloween parties... we even had the Iron Man costume and the Captain America mask.  But as we searched and searched for a Captain America costume the day before our first party, we came up empty-handed and Westin spotted these adorable Mario & Luigi costumes and decided that they would be PERFECT.  I agreed :) The smallest they had was a size 6 so Tucker's needed a little altering but that was much easier than starting from scratch on a Captain America costume, which was what I was afraid was going to happen.

Trunk or Treat:
Instead of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood this year, we went to our church's Trunk or Treat.  It was AWESOME.  I would definitely do it every year.  I felt very safe, didn't worry about things being too scary for the boys, and we had some really great chili, desserts, and praise around the bonfire.  

My cute parents & their 50's themed trunk

Mario & his cute friend, Mia the police officer

The GORGEOUS sky God blessed us with over Trunk or Treat.  No photoshopping whatsoever!

That sums up the kick-off!  I'm really looking forward to all that the rest of the Season has to offer :) This week has been a busy one, especially with Kreg out of town elk hunting... but when he gets back next week I plan on having LOTS of fun activities planned for us! Stay tuned.